As we paid tribute to our Armed Forces this week, the climate community celebrated an extraordinary victory for the health, safety and security of this country’s future; a future that America’s men and women in the military fight to protect every day, both at home and abroad. After years of impact and economic studies, protests, sit-ins, letters and politicking, the State Department delayed a decision on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline until 2013. This delay did more than re-schedule the decision until after next year’s presidential election; it has the potential to kill the project completely, complicating the agreements oil companies and suppliers currently share with TransCanada, Keystone’s owner and operator. In the face of overwhelming public opposition, the decision also challenged how Canadian oil-sands producers will ultimately transport their product the 1,700 miles from Canada to Texas’ Gulf Coast. President Obama responded, “I support the State Department’s announcement. The final decision should be guided by an open, transparent process that is informed by the best available science and the voices of the American people.” A priority for the Administration’s international climate team has been encouraging countries to take individual action and responsibility at home. Delaying and, ultimately, killing the Keystone XL pipeline could single-handedly be the most important policy to keep the US and Canada in line with their respective UNFCCC emission commitments. Don’t forget to check out USCAN’s tar sands page for up-to-date information and a collection of reactions on the latest developments.

One of the most crucial issues in the debate was the woefully lacking environmental impact statement that failed to account for the sensitive Sand Hills area of Nebraska, which includes a high concentration of special concern wetlands, the surrounding sensitive ecosystem, extensive areas of very shallow groundwater and the Ogallala aquifer’s susceptibility to oil spills and contamination. With a new study called for, the State Department, along with consultation with eight other agencies, will determine whether the pipeline is in the national interest, weighing environmental concerns and impacts on climate change, energy security, economic impacts and foreign policy.

Another powerful step to curb emissions happened this week when the Australian Parliament passed a sweeping measure to impose a price on carbon emissions, a step seen as one of the country’s biggest economic reforms in a decade. Australia accounts for a mere 1.5% of global emissions, however, it is the developed world’s highest emitter per capita due to the nation’s heavy reliance on coal to generate power. The new law is a major victory for Prime Minister Julia Gillard who, early on, staked her government’s future on the largest comprehensive carbon price scheme outside of Europe, despite deep hostility from opponents.

The carbon tax is central to the platform of the government’s fight against climate change and aims to halt the growth of the country’s growing greenhouse gas emissions from a resources-led boom and age-old reliance on coal-fired power stations. Climate advocates around the world also see this vote as giving new life to December’s UNFCCC global climate talks taking place in Durban, South Africa.

Decisions like Keystone XL and Australia’s carbon tax could not have come at a more critical time. This week, the journal of Health Affairs released a report on the cost of human suffering and loss of life caused by six US disasters related to climate change over the years 2000-2009. The report concluded that these catastrophes totaled an estimated $14B in healthcare costs. To put that into perspective, this year alone the US has experienced 14 weather disasters, putting the country on record to spend more on climate change-related disasters than ever before, according to Jeff Masters of the Weather Underground. Kim Knowlton, a senior scientist at Natural Resources Defense Council and co-author commented, “When extreme weather hits, we hear about the property damage and insurance costs. The healthcare costs never end up on the tab.”

In the report, scientists and economists from NRDC, the University of California-Berkeley and the University of California-San Francisco examined the health costs for the following events from 2000 to 2009:

* U.S. ozone air pollution, 2000-2002, $6.5 billion;

* West Nile virus outbreak in Louisiana, 2002, $207 million;

* Southern California wildfires, 2003, $578 million;

* Florida hurricane season, 2004, $1.4 billion;

* California heat wave, 2006, $5.3 billion;

* Red River flooding in North Dakota, 2009, $20 million.

The authors note that climate-related events like those listed above are only the tip of the iceberg and are expected to worsen as the planet warms.

Kellyn Garrison, Southeast Regional Coordinator

Make the Clean Air Promise: New Outreach Materials

The Clean Air Promise is a national campaign to protect the health of children and families across the country from dangerous air pollution. A broad-based coalition of public health, advocacy, and environmental organizations – along with concerned parents across the country – are joining together to mobilize citizens, share their stories, and demand a firm commitment to clean air from leaders in industry and government.

Events

The Obama Administration announced it would delay its decision on whether to authorize construction of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline until 2013. In a State Department press release, officials cited several factors that contributed to the decision, including concerns about the environmental sensitivity of the Sands Hill area of Nebraska, through which the pipeline would be built. The November 10 statement announced the Administration will now conduct a thorough reassessment of proposed pipeline route alternatives. In addition, the release also noted, “Among the relevant issues that would be considered are environmental concerns (including climate change), energy security, economic impacts, and foreign policy.”

On November 8, the Obama Administration announced intentions to regulate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from power plants. The rule, titled “Greenhouse Gas New Source Performance Standard for Electric Utility Steam Generating Units,” would be the first rule that allows the EPA to enforce standards for new power plants. New regulations about greenhouse gas emissions have been delayed by Republican lawmakers claiming that actions of the EPA will result in fewer jobs. Opponents claim that economic costs of the rule will outweigh environmental benefits. The proposed regulation follows a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that the EPA has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act if it found greenhouse gases to be a danger to public health, which EPA confirmed in a 2008 endangerment finding.

The Georgetown Climate Center recently launched the Adaptation Clearinghouse, an online tool to find and share resources and information that pertain to climate change policy issues and adaptation measures. This new online community will serve as a database of new research about climate change adaptation, as well as a forum to spread newly developed models and techniques. Some of the recent resources shared in the online community include a comprehensive model that explores sea level rise and coastal land use, and an adaptation plan for the city of Chula Vista that weighs the potential infrastructural impacts of climate change on the city. The Georgetown Climate Center is a nonpartisan group that aims to connect policymakers and share best practices and resources concerning climate change.

The Pew Center on Global Climate Change has announced it has changed its name to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) after it lost $3.5 million in funding from its primary donor, The Pew Charitable Trusts. In lieu of Pew’s funding, C2ES has found funding from three “strategic partners”, Entergy, HP and Shell, as well as major contributions from Alcoa Foundation, Bank of America, GE, The Energy Foundation, Duke Energy and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. According to Eileen Claussen, the group’s president and former climate change negotiator under President Bill Clinton, “Every one of these companies does some things that we don’t like. . . They’ve got trade associations to do their bidding and they’ve got lobbyists. They view their association with us as different because we are in fact independent.” Claussen stressed that C2ES will remain commited to “fact-based analysis and pragmatic solutions.”

According to a November 1 UN report, a global market for carbon that is stored within the world’s oceans is necessary to protect marine and coastal environments, or “blue carbon.” Over 55 percent of the biological carbon captured globally is captured by marine organisms, and preventing further loss of marine environments while working towards their recovery could offset three to seven percent of current fossil fuels emissions. The report estimates that as much as seven percent of blue carbon sinks are lost each year. According to the report, a Blue Carbon Fund would encourage investments in the maintenance and rehabilitation of these crucial marine ecosystems.

The Climate Investment Funds (CIF) announced on November 4 that over $1 billion will be invested in climate change mitigation. Working with banks such as the African Development Bank and the World Bank Group, the CIF funds help developing countries establish low emissions development projects that are adaptive with climate change. Recipients of the near-zero interest loans and grants include nations such as Bolivia, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mali, Mexico, and Nepal. The CIF will invest in projects such as developing renewable hydropower in India and Nepal, establishing a grid-connected renewable energy system in Honduras, and combating deforestation in Laos by supporting sustainable forest management.

Australia’s parliament passed the most comprehensive carbon pricing scheme outside of the European Union (EU) on November 7. The law will put a tax of $23 (around $23.78 U.S. dollars) on each ton of carbon emitted by the top 500 polluters from July 2012 until July 2015, after which it will become a carbon trading emission scheme. Even though Australia only accounts for 1.5 percent of the world’s emissions, they have the highest per capita emissions intensity of any country because coal generates 80 percent of the country’s electricity. The government expects the tax will incentivize a multibillion dollar investment in cleaner fuels and will move their energy economy away from coal. The law also provides compensation for export-exposed industries, such as aluminum, zinc and steel, and provides personal tax cuts for workers (totaling up to $300 per year on average). In addition, the export-exposed industries will receive 94.5 percent of their carbon permits for free for the first three years. Once the scheme moves to a tradable permit system, it will be integrated with EU’s trading scheme.

Following a decision to ban hydrofuorocarbon-23 (HFC-23) in Europe by May 2013, there will no longer be a market in which credits for hydrofluorocarbon credits are bought. According to Xie Fei, revenue management director at China Clean Development Mechanism Fund, this would cause Chinese producers of HFCs to vent the gases rather than incinerating them. Since 2007, the Chinese fund that collects revenue from local HFC offset projects has made over $1.3 billion, which was used to invest in emissions reduction schemes and carbon policy. The market for HFC offsets is expected to become obsolete as the EU bans the detrimental greenhouse gas, and Australia and New Zealand work toward similar decisions. Major Chinese manufacturers and producers of HFCs claimed that without the market for pollution credits, the cost of incineration is too high. HFC-23 is 11,700 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas and remains in the atmosphere for about 200 years.

On November 8, EU finance ministers pledged 7.2 billion Euros to fund projects in developing countries that address climate change. This is a steep increase from previous years—in 2010 and 2011, the EU members provided 4.68 billion Euros to climate change projects in developing countries. Critics of the finance commitment argue that the funds are not new investments, but relabelled development funding. This funding is a critical part of the pledge to deliver $30 billion as “fast-start finance” to developing nations between 2010 and 2012. Fast-start finance was established in Copenhagen in 2009 to help developing nations cope with climate change. Further negotiations and pledges for financing climate projects in developing countries will be central to the Durban summit, set to begin November 28.

According to a recent Price Waterhouse Cooper (PWC) report, global carbon intensity—a measure of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per unit of production—grew 0.6 percent in the past year. The global GDP rose 5.1 percent and CO2 emissions rose 5.8 percent in the same time frame. This year was the first year since 2000 that the G20 nations have made no progress in reducing carbon intensity. Rising carbon intensity renders the goal of keeping global temperature rise within 2 degrees Celsius increasingly unlikely. The increase in intensity is attributed to booming economic growth in China, Brazil, and South Korea, along with especially cold winter temperatures in the northern hemisphere. This report was released as an installment in PWC’s “Low Carbon Economy Index”.

After initially spotting an 18 mile long crack in the ice on Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica, NASA scientists concluded that a 300 square-mile iceberg will break off in the next few months. The newly formed iceberg is likely Antarctica’s largest contribution to global sea level rise so far. Warmer water has melted the deeper portions of the ice shelf that would otherwise have kept the ice mass grounded, leaving the mass of ice unstable. Scientists studying the ice shelf are unsure whether the ice will recover its size, or continue to become thinner and weaker, continually contributing to sea level rise.

New research suggests that coral reefs may be more adaptive to climate change than previously thought. Ocean acidification, the result of increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), causes corals to become brittle and to grow more slowly. However, areas of reef that are close to ecosystems with much photosynthesis, such as sea grass beds and areas rich in algae, are resilient to this threat because the plant life absorbs the CO2, thus mitigating acidification. This phenomenon could protect some areas of reef for longer, giving scientists more time to study ecosystems and adaptation methods. This study was published in the journal PLoS One.

According to a recent report by the International Energy Agency, irreversible climate change consequences are unavoidable if dramatic changes are not made within the next five years. If current pledges to reduce emissions are successful, the temperature average is projected to rise 3.5 degrees Celsius, says the report, which is still considerably higher than the two degree rise in temperature considered safe by scientists. The authors of the World Energy Outlook report said they are not optimistic that these planned measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will even be successful, and a failure to meet emissions reduction goals could result in a temperature rise of at least six degrees Celsius. Some factors that are expected to aggravate emissions problems include reluctance to continue using nuclear energy following the Fukushima disaster, unwillingness to abandon current industry and infrastructure, and growing numbers of fossil fuel-dependent power plants and inefficient buildings.

A recent analysis by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) indicated that the ecology, sea level, and water supply of California’s San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta will be altered significantly by 2100 in response to different climate change scenarios. Warmer waters and increased salinity threaten native marine ecosystems. Key species such as Delta smelt and Chinook salmon will face great difficulty maintaining a sustainable population. Changes in regional water systems would affect the drinking water of 25 million people, and the irrigation that sustains $36 billion worth of crops annually. To cope with changes, the study suggested building an integrated understanding of river-estuary systems and climate change, monitoring the environmental indicators related to uncertainties about climate change, considering the effect of climate change on the biological community and local habitats, and anticipating adaptions to changing ecosystems. The study was published in the online journal PLoS One.

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) invites you to a briefing to learn about how clean, renewable, efficient biomass heating can contribute to job creation, economic development, and energy security in communities across the country, as well as ways in which policies can help overcome some of the existing challenges and barriers to biomass use in the residential, commercial, and institutional sectors. This briefing was organized in conjunction with Biomass Thermal Energy Council, Biomass Coordinating Council, McGuire Woods, Northeast Biomass Thermal Working Group, Pellet Fuels Institute and Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition. The briefing will be held Wednesday, November 16, 2011, 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM in Room 2322 of the Rayburn House Office Building. This event is free and open to the public. No RSVP required. For more information, contact Clare Cooper at ccooper [at] eesi.org or (202) 662-1884.

For additional information see:

Writers: Deep Ghosh and Matthew Johnson

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The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) is a non-profit organization founded in 1984 by a bipartisan Congressional caucus dedicated to finding innovative environmental and energy solutions. EESI works to protect the climate and ensure a healthy, secure, and sustainable future for America through policymaker education, coalition building, and policy development in the areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy, agriculture, forestry, transportation, buildings, and urban planning.

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“The mere fact that the State Department is slowing down and taking a look at the dirty Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is hugely encouraging. We commend President Obama for listening to the American people and putting the brakes on what would have been a disaster for millions of Americans who want clean air, clean water and good health for their families.”